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Influence of the nozzle angle on refrigeration performance of a gas wave refrigerator

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Abstract

A gas wave refrigerator (GWR) is a novel refrigerating device that refrigerates a medium by shock waves and expansion waves generated by gas pressure energy. In a typical GWR, the injection energy losses between the nozzle and the expansion tube are essential factors which influence the refrigeration efficiency. In this study, numerical simulations are used to analyze the underlying mechanism of the injection energy losses. The results of simulations show that the vortex loss, mixing energy loss, and oblique shock wave reflection loss are the main factors contributing to the injection energy losses in the expansion tube. Furthermore, the jet angle of the gas is found to dominate the injection energy losses. Therefore, the optimum jet angle is theoretically calculated based on the velocity triangle method. The value of the optimum jet angle is found to be \(4^{\circ }\), \(8^{\circ }\), and \(12^{\circ }\) when the refrigeration efficiency is the first-order, second-order, and third-order maximum value over all working ranges of jet frequency, respectively. Finally, a series of experiments are conducted with the jet angle ranging from \(-4^{\circ }\) to \(12^{\circ }\) at a constant expansion ratio. The results indicate the optimal jet angle obtained by the experiments is in good agreement with the calculated value. The isentropic refrigeration efficiency increased by about 4 % after the jet angle was optimized.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21676048) (21476036) and Basic research project of Key Laboratory of Liaoning Provincial Education Department (LZ2015019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116012, Liaoning, China

    P. Liu, Y. Zhu, H. Wang, C. Zhu, J. Zou, J. Wu & D. Hu

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  1. P. Liu
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  2. Y. Zhu
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  3. H. Wang
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  4. C. Zhu
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  5. J. Zou
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  6. J. Wu
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  7. D. Hu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Hu.

Additional information

Communicated by C.-Y. Wen and A. Higgins.

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Liu, P., Zhu, Y., Wang, H. et al. Influence of the nozzle angle on refrigeration performance of a gas wave refrigerator. Shock Waves 27, 507–516 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-016-0689-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-016-0689-1

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